Iron County register., 1887-03-03
Shall Land be the Property of the
State?
IRoSToN, Mo-, Feb. 18th, 1Se

abuses, things dangerous to America
polit and to free institutions hav
grown ap and been fo~tered in th
United States of America in the las
three or four decades, are facts so axio
matte, truths so self-evIdent, as to nee'
10 argument, proof, or demonstration
to any sane mind. That we have bar
ons, in all save name, all but as power
full as Warwick, .'the king-maker,
sprung up almost sas the giants fren
Medals iragon-teeth of old and as un
scrupulous in the acquisition, the US,
and the abuse of power as was evel
Richelieu or MazarIm, Robespierre OIL
Danton. or Scylla or Marius, no mar
will deny. That tits an evil, and in ac
cordarce with evil laws, or by an in
iquitous breaking of laws, that men
may, and have, become, in half life
time, able, many times over, to buy
and sell the richest and most powerful
representatives of a long line Of the
feudal robbers of the old world, none
will deny.
That there is something radically
wrong when a man who was thirty
years ago obliged to7borrow few dol
lars to Publish a history Of county,
can now automatically, by reason of his
great wealth, control hundreds of
thousands of our fellow" citizens; who
owns and controls the ways of COM
merce, spanning the continent; who
has and exercises the power of making
and marring the fortunes of mighty
cities; for whose smiles the mighty
men of the earth cringe and beg; and
at whose frown industries are parnl w
ed; at whose behest grave courts relax
old and well-settled maXims Of law; at
whose signal armed bands start up in
rivalry of the cohorts Pompey was to
raise by stamping on the soil of Italy;
at whose command Legislators tremble
and obey, none will attempt to refute.
a I'D Gould is but type of his class.
When we remem Der the great wealth
OF this nation, and the fact that this
wealth is in chief in the hands of few;
when we remember the comparative
poverty of the masses; when we know
the great power that great wealth
gives; and when we remember the un-
scrupulous manner the great part of
of that wealth was, in a majority of IN
stances, originally acquired, and in
W hich it has been too often used, is it
any wonder t'lsa thsF" i feeling of
fear among thinking men-it is strange
that some take gloomy view of our
country's future? Are we far wrong
when We imagine them saying, with
latter me, the deluge?"
That matters have reached a point in
the United States beyond which to
proceed on our present way would be
goes without saying; that,
even now, the evils may be averted by
is far from assured-is, in
fact, shrouded in doubt.
1t is not strange, then, this being
the posture of affairs, that in coun-
try, singularIy productive of reading,
thinking, impetuous, imaginative men,
men who blend with these qualities
those of the theorist, the phllanthro-
pst and the philosopher, should dis
cover, or think they had discovered,
the panacea of all the ills OF state, and
herald to the world the saving gospel,
and call upon all men to come, drink,
and be healed of their Ills.
But too oftelI, these would-be MOseses |
to lead Us out of the land of bondage. |
are only well-meaning, philanthropic,
theorists, without prac-
tical experience Of matters of the world; |
Or, if at all experienced, are so on too |
small a scale for that experience to ov-
erbalance their visionary theories.
And among such are Henry George
and those who support him.
AS I understand it, their theory is,
hat the evils under which the masses
suffer are the result of the individual
ownership of land. They hold that all
ands should be held by the state, for
he benefit of all citizens alike; that all |
taxes should be raised from land; that |
all persons should be joint tenants or
each not able to point to a |
square ell as all his oaUn, but able to say |
that, with lis fellow citizens, he oaUned |
it all; that it is the monopoly of land |
TO which all evils are tracea BILE.
Inferentially, therefore, that when it
became impossible to invest money in |
lands, capitalists would cease to hoard,
and the stewardship of money and |
things of value would become more
equally divided among mankind.
Before passing from this latter, I
would say, that before determining up
IN this last proposition, it would be
we'll to consider that boarding, covet-
BUSINESS, acquisitiveness,i is the principal
Incentive to energy and industry; and,
hat, taken away. by equal and un-
,hangeable fixed division of wealth,
his would be indeed dull, slothful,
world. Solve the above
and you have solved the whole ques-
ion. / know how Americans will de-
,ide it. Or else one hundred years of
.ctive, aggressive, pushing life in
promise have given the lie to perform
snce.
Just here I will quote from preced-
pg part of this paper: "They hold
hat ali lands should be held for the
benefit CT all citizens alike"
With one execution these enthusiasts